Broad changes in the laws governing the ownership and operation of communication systems and terminal facilities have provided opportunities for participation by persons other than a dominant common carrier.
Currently pay subscriber stations of a wire line switching system are provided by a Common Carrier or by a reseller of WATS or other bulk facilities. Common Carrier plant facilities inherently include apparatus and operator personnel to handle both coin and credit card calls from their pay stations. However, a reseller of bulk billed facilities must provide tandem switching facilities along with a separate administrative network for handling customer billing. An example of such a reseller system is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,636. The cost of installation and maintenance of the tandem switch and the administrative network are substantial. Furthermore, in these systems, each phone call requires two simultaneous, separate connections, one between the station and the tandem switch and one between the tandem switch and the public network for the full duration of the call. Such systems require relatively large numbers of physically clustered stations to be economically justified.
Additionally, there are privately owned credit card and coin stations which are connected to business lines of a wire switching system. These stations screen credit cards locally, originate calls in accordance with customer requests and maintain a full record of charges. From time to time, the charges are transmitted to a billing computer.